(huffingtonpost.co.uk) Story: An exhibition entitled Slow currently on show at the China Exchange in the heart of London’s Chinatown. It’s a commission from an arts initiative called Shaire, based in London, Singapore and Beijing in which interdisciplinary groups are invited to explore the broad theme of nature.The most eye-catching exhibit in Slow is by the internationally acclaimed American sculptor, Brattleboro local, Aaron Distler. [Aaron Distler is the son of Arlene Distler, Brattleboro’s longtime art critic.] It comprises what looks at first like a large caterpillar but, in fact, is a Chimera, a mythical fire-eating dragon (above) that supposedly vanishes when you look at it. So it has both a physical and ethereal presence about it.
The importance of this work, as with the others, is as much in the process as in the final outcome. Distler has fashioned the legs from wood for which he has used steam to bend them into shape. While carving the wood, he follows the natural grain. The body is made from large sections of oiled paper which he has shaped by setting fire to them. Using these natural elements, he shows an appreciation of “slow design”, a return to hand craftsmanship that is not always sweet but sometimes fierce..
“The fire and the steam is interesting because it’s a process that is almost out of your control. It’s almost a chaotic process that you’re trying to contain,” Distler tells me. “With the steam-bending process it’s craft, you’re giving yourself a tight parameter to work in which I find really fulfilling.”
There are many aspects to wood, one of which, as here, is a precious material used in the manufacture of fine furniture and all manner of practical and decorative items. Yet Distler is also trying to make the viewer consider wood’s more sinister side.
“It’s a material in which the fibre is under tension, it’s an organic material that decays. You really have to wrestle it into being something else that isn’t its natural state.”
Shaire is hoping to develop its London branch into a foundation and is looking for any established artists from whichever discipline to create artworks on the theme of nature which could then be shown to a Chinese audience. Slow will travel to China and open to the public during Art Beijing 2017.
In the meantime, it will show at the China Exchange, 32A Gerrard Street, London W1D 6JA until 27 September
All images are used with the permission of Shaire and the artists.
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